PCMatic.Com TV Commercial

TV Commercial:

PCMatic.com – “The PC Repair Man”

Description:

PCMatic is software to make your computer faster and safer

Actor playing the repair man: unknown; Actress that plays the girl: unknown

Partial transcript:

$300 for the Virus removal. $300?! I have antivirus software! I feel so helpless. Start with a free download from PCMatic.com. PCMatic.com? PCMatic protects against viruses and a lot more. Well how does PC do that? PCMatic adds an additional security later to block what others can’t. Well how is PCMatic different? Viruses enter through holes in out of date software. PCMatic closes those holes. PCMatic says this computer might be slow and might be freezing. It is slow and I restart it a lot. PCMatic can fix that with the click of a button. Wow! PCMatic made my computer faster. PCMatic also improved download speeds. Can PCMatic keep my computer running this way? PCMatic runs automatically and sends a report to your inbox. PCMatic made my day, thank you! Don’t thank me, thank PCMatic! Go to PCMatic.com today for a free download.

Key words and phrases in this TV commercial and what they really mean:

What the commercial said:Start with a free download from PCMatic.com

What some people might think that means: PCMatic is free

What it really means: The “Free download” of PCMatic is limited to running basic scans only. If you want the software to fix anything, you must pay for it. The cost is approximately $50. Nearly all of the features and benefits described in this TV commercial apply only to the full, paid version and not the ‘free download’.

What the TV commercial said:Viruses enter through holes in out of date software. PCMatic closes those holes

What some people might think that means: If I use PCMatic I will not get any viruses because it closes all of the security holes

What it really means: No software can close all security holes and is limited to applying only security updates already freely available by software manufacturers. PCMatic cannot close all security holes.

What the TV commercial said: says this computer might be slow and might be freezing…. PCMatic can fix that with the click of a button. Wow! PCMatic made my computer faster.

What some people might think that means: If my computer is slow PCMatic will make it faster

What it really means: No software can “make your computer faster”. However if your computer has been slowed down by viruses or other malware, removing that malware will restore the computer to it’s normal speed. If a virus is slowing down your computer and if you pay the $50 (see above) for the full version of PCMatic and it is able to remove the virus or other malware, your computer may be restored to it’s original speed

What they said in the commercial:PCMatic also improved download speeds

What some people might think that means: It will make my downloads faster

What it really means: Your download speed is set by your internet service provider and your internet hardware (router, DSL or Cable modem, etc) and cannot be changed. Some older operating systems such Windows 95 and Windows 98 were not fully optimized to make best use of high speed internet connections and can be tweaked for slightly better download performance. Modern operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows Vista and Windows 8 automatically optimize your internet connect for the best performance. The PCMatic.com TV commercial offers no data to support if/how much of an improvement it makes on your internet speed. Without any data to support this claim, many tech experts would say that this claim is false for any Windows computers less than 10 years old.

Summary:

This commercial makes several claims that may mislead many people, the worst one leading people to believe that the (approximately) $50 product is free. This commercial may also lead many people to believe that it can close all security holes on a computer, which no software can do.

3 comments

betty schwartz / May 31, 2013

Yes, I was tricked by the commercial, however experience has taught me that nothing is free. With all the TV hipe on PC Matic one has to know that it is not free for them to advertise and they have to make money. With that said, I will probably buy the program and I am confident that it will help, however, I will still keep my virus coverage up to date. I just want to clean my system out daily so it will operate better. Thanks for describing the commercial and informing people about it. Now we can decide for ourselves.

Yes, I was tricked by the TV ad, but luckily only to the extent that I decided to research the product, before making a decision on whether or not to download it. I am glad I did – I found lots of people, all over the net, stating that it overclocked processors, gave false positive virus resports (even on a brand new install,) sent information about the user’s browsing back to their site, trojan style, and that once installed it was impossible to remove.

It may be that this is a legit program, and that all the people who were complaining had problems that were caused by some other factor. But, frankly, I’m not willing to take the chance.

I am also concerned that their TV ad claims it will speed up downloads. Exactly how would it do this? Does it somehow have the power to control my ISP? I do understand that early incarnations of Windows were not optimized for the fastest download speeds, making download managers useful, but on anything later that Vista this can hardly be a factor. This obviously false claim alone made me suspicious.